Intermittent laziness.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Fear and all of its consequences.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 March 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
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Daryl McCormack
Irish actor
Oversharing. I long to be intimately connected to people and sometimes, among strangers, I don’t read the room.
I very often set my heart on things – and if they don’t happen, I’m not great at dealing with disappointment.
Carrie Fisher
Actor and writer
My driving skills.
More from Carl Barât
View profile →The last time I held my children and every time before that. They’ve been my salvation.
Fear and all of its consequences.
Probably when I didn’t sleep for a week on drugs in 2009. I’d had a lot of meth and my heart felt like it was giving out. I remember climbing over balconies really high up, and I thought I was going to die, until I eventually fell asleep in someone’s garden.
More on identity & self
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Bonnie Raitt, Charlotte Church, John Mellencamp, Rita Moreno, Audra McDonald, Bryn Terfel
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